Friday, May 15, 2020

Public schools need Covid-19 Administrators

Two weeks ago, my company went back into business,
albeit it partially for what are essential products.

At that time, I reassigned a young man who
previously managed one of our distribution centers to assume a new role –
Covid-19 Administrator. For the next 12 to 24 months – however long it takes
the world to overcome the virus - his sole focus will be on the coronavirus. He
will, in conjunction with me, frontline managers and everyone on the plant
floor develop, redevelop, train, audit and track our countless protocols and
procedures while also building a network for testing, tracing, cleaning and
communication if someone does become ill.

That may seem to some businessfolk to be a big
investment in Covid-19. It is, but it’s a necessary investment and like any
investment it has a return: What would the cost be to our countless families,
let alone the company, if we had an outbreak? My coworkers, customers,
contractors and community deserve protections and his new role helps me ensure
that everyone and our supply chain are healthy. You can’t put a cost on that.

Such a position isn’t for every business,
especially smaller ones, to make a full-time role (in many cases, a proprietor
or human resources person can do this among their duties). Having a Covid-19
Administrator should be based on thresholds and exposures at the consideration
of the business owner. For us, with 165 coworkers from wide-ranging and diverse
WNY communities and customers who visit from across the United States and
Canada, it made sense. There are a lot of people to protect in our workplace
and in the workers’ homes.

While I don’t encourage all businesses to bring on
such a person I encourage all school districts to.

I’m in charge of essential products but our schools
are in charge of essential people – sons, daughters and grandchildren, our
world’s most precious gems. They need to be protected, as do the teachers and
the parents and babysitters who live with and watch the children.

You know what it’s like with kids and something
“simple” like the cold or flu – despite contagious illness policies and
considerations, feverish, snot-nosed and coughing kids fill the schools because
their parents have to work. These sickly children wipe their mucus on wrists
and sleeves, rub their hands along stair rails and door handles, and cough and
sneeze on the lunchtable. That causes these common ailments to spread like wildfire
in schools and then at homes, which then spread to workplaces. It’s a vicious
cycle.

Now, take those behaviors, add a bug that’s a few
notches worse, a virus that spreads easily, is difficult to kick, and puts so
many with preexisting conditions had by parents and grandparents alike (common
maladies like diabetes, heart and lung disease, and old age) at risk of
hospitalization and death and you’ve got the perfect formula for a horrid community
outbreak.

That’s why a Covid-19 Administrator is so important
in each district. You need someone full-time to: Develop social distancing
protocols; manage facility layouts; strategize athletic events, plays, and
graduations; train students, families, staff and teachers; procure and manage
inventories of personal protective equipment; create a testing network; and much
more.

It’s necessary to protect the kids and also because
this is -- as they keep saying -- the “new normal.” Coronavirus considerations
will be with us for a few years until society has developed something close to
herd immunity or scientists create a successful vaccine. We certainly can’t
shut down the economy and society for years. And, as I mentioned in this page
last week, students need their classrooms and teachers --- technology cannot
replace the love, care and abilities of our educators. Plus, the kids – and
heck, even we moms and dads – need sports, arts and clubs and the lessons and
memories they create.

To make that happen schools have to adapt their
facilities, operations and behaviors accordingly. With so many moving parts, it
will take full-time attention.

Regular readers of this column are likely
scratching their heads and thinking “I thought Confer was a small government
guy. Now he wants another unfunded mandate?”

No, I don’t.

The State has identified Covid-19 as a public
health risk and has instituted so many – even too many – means to keep it at
bay. That admission puts the onus on the State to be deeply involved in it at
the most important of public institutions, our schools.

In a proposal to the State, I will be asking them
to consider investing in a Covid-19 Administrator for each district. The
schools would hire their own admin (someone who is an excellent project
manager) and maintain employment for only two academic years, a temporary
position to handle the virus as it develops and to create a playbook that can
be rolled out at any time after those two years. That position would be
fully-funded by a state grant. The state would also provide a week of training
and regular retraining, remotely, to ensure the administrator is up on the
latest issues.

With September just 3.5 months away, time is of the
essence to make such an essential person an asset for each district and its
families. But, we do have a little time to make this a reality and get people
hired. Planning and preparation for 2020-2021’s new world has already begun,
but amidst the struggles with remote education underway now, it’s not getting the
fullest attention until this school year ends.

A Covid-19 Administrator is an extreme idea, but
desperate times calls for desperate measures. We have to give schools the tools
they need to protect their precious cargo – my kids and yours.

From the 18
May 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News